Blogs Note Yankee Stadium Report, Taxpayer Rip-Off

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky's negative review of the new Yankee Stadium's impact on taxpayers -- which report cites Runnin' Scared's own Neil deMause -- has stirred comment at development-watchdog blogs.

Atlantic Yards Report finds it curious that Economic Development Corporation president Seth Pinsky has pulled out of a planned appearance at tomorrow's Congressional Subcommittee hearing, "Gaming the Tax Code: Public Subsidies, Private Profits, and Big League Sports in New York," held by Dennis Kucinich, leaving it without a city representative. (The Yankees won't have a rep there either.) "Doesn’t Congress have subpoena power?" asks AYR, which also compares the raw deal taxpayers get on payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) in the stadium deal with that proposed for Atlantic Yards.

No Land Grab adds, "We do find it interesting that Pinsky and the City feel the hearing won't work for them, since we're pretty damned sure that the ripping off of taxpayers doesn't work for us."

From Chicago, B12 Solipsism comments, "The swindle works so well because there is always a second-string city somewhere who can be used as leverage (like when the Seattle Sonics got moved to BFE Oklahoma ). If city governments stood strong, the owners of the teams would end up financing the stadiums... Mayor Bloomberg (and Rudy 9-11 before him) and the Yankees made all sorts of grandiose claims that the stadium would be a boon to the economy, and of course, it isn't, and won't be much different than the previous stadium, other than making more money for the owners."

Image via wfyurasako (cc)